31Dec2011: I think I almost lost my mind at the end of the border. Of course, I didn’t end up on the right row, so after trying to fudge it and hating the results and thinking, ‘wait, Dayana, you spent 40 hours on the border alone, and you’re going to accept this?!’, I magically ‘found’ (read: created) 3 more stitches in the body to make the border end up in the right place. Then of course, since I had already pulled out the provisional cast-on in my prior grafting attempts, I had to magically discover (read: create) where the loops were supposed to be. Well, 6 hours later, I finally grafted the border.

It’s beautiful. I’m over the pain now. =)

12Nov2011: This has been fun, but I really don’t understand how it seems to be the size of a shawlette when everyone else seems to have a 6 ft wide tablecloth!! Is my yarn really that much thinner than everybody else’s? Hard to believe… obviously a larger needle would have worked but it is quite gorgeous with the tighter stitches so…

And of course, blocking and cleaning off the paraffin (it’s a machine-knitting cone) might change everything.

I’m using small steel beads. Pretty, but too late I thought (1) what if they rust and (2) um, Dayana could you have picked anything heavier?? /sarcasm/

This is called Evenflow because I simply cannot say this pattern name without singing the Pearl Jam song. The downside is that I don’t even like that song anymore.

I almost cried when I realized that the Kauni XEQ I wanted to make this with (already bought the pattern) couldn’t even handle THE CAST ON, let alone the Evenstar stitch. That yarn is total junk, everybody. It can barely hold on stockinette. When I tried to hold a nylon thread with it, you know what happened? The wool broke AROUND the thread.